After naming Mopidevi Venkataramana, Dharmana Prasada Rao and Sabita Indra Reddy in its earlier chargesheets, the CBI, in one of the two chargesheets filed in the CBI special court here Tuesday, made Major Industries Minister J Geeta Reddy and accused for her alleged role in the allotment of 8,848 acres to the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub in Anantapur district.

Besides Geeta Reddy, Sabita Indra Reddy and Dharmana Prasada Rao, who have already been accused in the Dalmia and Vanpic cases respectively, and five senior IAS officers have also been named. Suspended IAS officer BP Acharya, Roads and Buildings Principal Secretary Busi Sam Bob, Special Chief Secretary, Department of Environment, Forests, Science & Technology M Samuel and Muralidhar Reddy have been named in the Lepakshi case.

Former Information Technology principal secretary Ratna Prabha and BP Acharya have been named in the Indu Techzone Pvt Ltd case. V Chandrasekhar, CBI’s new investigating officer, submitted the two chargesheets pertaining to the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub and Indu Techzone in the special CBI court at Nampally. With this, the total number of chargesheets filed in the case has gone up to 10.

Geeta Reddy has been named as accused number 9 in the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub case, whereas Dharmana has been made accused number 11. Sabita is accused number 8 in the Indu Techzone Pvt Ltd case.

The CBI informed the court that it wants to prosecute the IAS officers under the Prevention of Corruption Act and is waiting for sanction from the government. On prosecuting Geeta Reddy under the PC Act, the agency said as she was the minister concerned when the scam took place, there was no need for sanction from the government to prosecute her under the PC Act. Citing the example of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s son Abhay Singh Chautala, who was convicted in the illegal recruitment of over 3000 junior basic trained teachers’ scam, it said the agency need not take sanction to prosecute Geeta Reddy. The CBI has grilled Geeta Reddy twice in the past in the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub case.

In February 2009, LKH had signed an MoU with the industries department for setting up a global knowledge hub by providing integrated infrastructure support to a range of activities, including education clusters, science and technology parks, medical, aviation and aerospace and IT parks. According to the MoU, the company and the units were to invest between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore and create jobs for 1,50,000 people in a span of 5-10 years. The APIIC had made available the entire land, mostly acquired from farmers, to the company.

The Indu Group, promoter of the project, is a Hyderabad-based real estate player. The group is already under the CBI scanner for its investments in the firms of Jagan. In March, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had slammed both the State government and the project developer for violations in land allotment as well as its utilisation. The CAG maintained that the APIIC had irregularly executed a sale deed for 8,844 acres in Anantapur.

The government had allotted about 10,000 acres to the project in Anantapur district when YSR was the chief minister. Promoters of the project were later found to have taken over Rs 400 crore loan by mortgaging the land besides diverting funds. The administrative decisions related to this project were included in the quid pro quo investment case against Jagan.

The CBI status report observed that Indu Projects Ltd. floated a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Indu Techzone Pvt. Ltd, which is fully owned by Indu Projects Ltd. While allotting 250 acres of prime land at Shamshabad, near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, several exemptions such as stamp duty and registration expenses, subsidized power, all external infrastructures up to the boundary of SEZ and tax exemptions were provided under ICT Policy and SEZ Act, 2005.

Land worth about Rs 1 crore per acre was given at a price of Rs 20 lakh per acre and it was further pointed out that the project had to be completed within five years of allotment, which ended in the year 2011-2012. However, except developing a skeleton structure of about 7.50 lakh sft as against 45 lakh sft, Indu Techzone Pvt. Ltd. has failed to develop the project and has not created any new jobs.

The Indu Techzone Pvt. Ltd., availed Rs 175 crore loan by mortgaging about 75 acres which is shown to have been spent for the development of the project. The investigating agency is of the opinion that a major chunk of the funds was diverted or misappropriated.

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